On The Road
by Toastedbagel
Summary: Dave Gelvian sets out on a journey to best the Sinnoh League. All goes well until an recent incident comes back to haunt him. Can he and his newfound friends stop the madness, save the world, beat the gyms, and win the contests? Rated T just to leave room


_**On The Road (PG/Sometimes PG-13)**_

_**Chapter One: Dave Gets A Larvitar**_

(AN: My first fanfic. Review, please!)

Dave Gelvian walked along the dirt road of Route 202, slouching slightly with his hands in his pockets. He looked disinterestedly at a sign that said "Warning: Wild Pokémon Ahead". Glancing down at his starter Pokémon, a Turtwig rather unoriginally named Grassy, he said "I guess that means we can't go ahead, Su-I mean, Grassy." Grassy looked at him curiously. "Twig?" "Stupid Turtwig," he replied, squinting his blue eyes with anger. "Doesn't even know what I'm saying." He sighed and stopped walking, looking at the dense forest before them. "Some thirteenth birthday present _you_ were." Angrily kicking a rock, he stared wistfully at another boy cheerfully running past him, a Charmander in tow. "Don't even know why I came here..." he said, staring at the ground. He thought back to the week before when he had first gotten Grassy; when he was actually excited about being a trainer. He got lost in hs memories, and began to replay that fateful day in his head with bittersweet fondness.

_Monday, June 9th, 2010  
Dave rushed down the stairs, hastily grabbing his blue jacket off a peg on the staircase. He glanced at the kitchen to see if there was anything already made, and, as usual, there was breakfast set out on the table. Eggs and bacon, too, his favorite! A teenage girl, casually leaning on the kitchen counter, stared at him. She had startling blue eyes, the exact same color as his, and frizzy blond hair. She was dressed, quite surprisingly, in casual attire instead of her regular trainer's outfit; a red blouse with jeans and boots. "Haven't seen you in a while, sport," she said._

"Mel!" Dave yelled with unhidden excitement. He rushed towards her and was immediately swooped up in a big bear hug. "What're you doing here, big sis?" he asked.

"I just wanted to see you before you get your first Pokemon, so I flew in from Three Island City." Mel was an excellent trainer who had been recognized by Sinnoh several times for her prowess. She had an incredible record for someone of only 18, with the Sinnoh and Johto leagues under her belt and having placed in the top five in the Oak Interregional Pokemon Tournament for three consecutive years. Recently, though, she had taken a break to work with the Sevii Islands Development Project. They were working to build towns and cities on the mostly uninhabited Sevii Islands west of Sinnoh, and eventually hoped to have a league there. Dave had heard about it both on the news and from Mel herself, who was slated to be a Grass-type focused member of the Elite Four in the new league.

"That's awesome!" Dave said through a mouthful of eggs, trying to scarf down his breakfast as quickly as possible so he could get to the lab in time. Looking around, he asked "Where're Mom and Dad?"

"Mom had to sub in for another judge who was sick at the Jubilife contest today," Mel said. "Dad went in to work at the lab early, you'll see him there."

He shoved his feet in his shoes, not even bothering to tie them, and was just about to run out the door when Mel called after him.

"Wait!" she yelled. She held up a bright yellow backpack, slightly worn with a rip in the side. "You forgot your backpack!"

"Thanks!" he said, coming back in to snatch the backpack out of her hands and hoist it onto himself.

She dug her hand into her pocket, pulling out a baseball-sized silver stone. It looked rough and metallic, and light glinted off it in the morning sun. She held it out to him. "Take this," she said. "It's part of the meteorite that hit Birth Island and brought Deoxys to Earth. I got it from one of my friends who works in research there."

"Woah..." he said, awed by the beauty of the stone. "Thanks so much..." He looked at his Poketch, delivered to him yesterday by an assistant of Professor Rowan. "Oh, no!" he said. "10:30 already?! I'm gonna be late!" He ran out the door, shouting thanks and apologies back at Mel.

"Have fun!" Mel yelled, waving cheerfully at him. "Pick out a good one!"

He burst through the residential district of Sandgem Town, swinging right into the main street which contained a few shops, a Pokemon Center, and his final destination: Professor Rowan's lab. He ran into the lab at top speed, panting with exertion and excitement. The receptionist stared nonchalantly at him; she'd seen many overexcited teens in her time. "Pokemon distribution centah to tha left, dahling," she said, pointing with one perfectly filed nail.

"Thanks," Dave said before rushing into the doors marked "Pokemon Distribution Center". He looked around him. Most of the room was various glass cases with rows of Pokeballs on shelves. A man who looked to be around 60 but still seemingly robust walked up to him. The man wore a plain brown suit and pants, with a bushy white mustache covering his upper lip and oddly spiked gray hair protruding over his forehead.

"Welcome!" he said, turning around to sift through a box of Pokeballs labeled "For the kids". "I'm afraid that you're a bit late, the only ones we have now are starters."

Dave shuddered at the very word. When he was only a little kid, around seven, a friend had swiped two Pokeballs from his older brother; a Quilava and a Prinplup. He promised that they were friendly and really cool, but when he released them, they began attacking Dave. He tried to run, but they were too fast to escape. His screams attracted adults who were able to fend them off enough for the kid to catch up and return them, but not before Dave suffered numerous burn and puncture wounds. It was too late they learned that, as a safeguard against possible thieves, the kid's brother had trained all his Pokemon to attack anyone around them if they were released by anybody but him.

Ever since then, Dave had had a deep distrust for starter Pokemon. After all, they were some of the most powerful Pokemon, and a powerful Pokemon was also, in his eyes, a dangerous Pokemon.

He tried not to think about those unfortunate events as he tried to decide which starter Pokemon he wanted. "Umm..." he said, beginning to sweat. He couldn't stop thinking about the pain and fear he had experienced that day. "I think I'll take a Turtwig." After all, he supposed, Mel got one, and look where it got her. Grass starters couldn't do anything more than cut...and poison...and strangle...and paralyze...and break bones.

He laughed nervously as the professor fished out a Pokeball from the box. "Here you go, son," Professor Rowan said.

A man with blue eyes and blond hair similar to Dave's walked in, looking at a clipboard. "George, I have the results for the latest batch of tests on radiation tolerance." He looked up and dropped the clipboard to run towards Dave, who was immediately captured in a giant hug. "Dave!" he said, tears brimming in his eyes. "I can't believe it; your first Pokemon! I am so proud of you!"

Dave grinned, his cheeks reddening. "Aw, Dad, you're embarassing me..."

"So whadya get?"

"A Turtwig."

"What're you gonna call it?"

"Um...I think I'll call it Grassy."

Dave's dad released him from his crushing grip. "Release it so we can see it, why don't you?" he said, beaming.

"Alright," Dave said, smiling as he pressed the button to expand the ball. He tossed it into the air, white energy shooting out to form into a small Turtwig. Dave's jaw lay agape in shock at the thought that this creature was his own to command. He imagined all the adventures they would have together, the rivers they would cross, the trails they would blaze, the mountains they would climb!

Grassy looked up at him, gave an enthusiastic "Tur!", and headbutted him in the balls. Dave fell to the ground, a small cry of pain slipping from his mouth. Dave's dad and Professor Rowan rushed over to him.

"I say, boy!" Rowan said.

"Oh, God!" Dave's dad said. "Dave?! Are you alright?!"

Dave threw up.

To add insult to injury, it turned out Grassy had suffered brain damage as a baby from getting struck by a Thunderbolt. This pretty much meant all it could do was eat, sleep, and poop. By the time the Gelvian family figured this out, it was too late; Rowan had run out of Pokemon for the week and Sinnoh law stated that he couldn't exchange it for another Pokemon after that. After that, Dave's mom, a part-time contest judge, suggested he should go on walks like this with it, if for nothing else than to lessen his dislike of starters and for them both to get some exercise.

Turning his focus back to the real world, he took out Grassy's Pokeball and pressed the return button, a red beam shooting out to turn the turtle Pokémon back into energy and suck it into its humble abode. With that, he started to walk back to his generic hometown of Sandgem Town, where the grass was about as green as average and the ten-year-old girls were busty. Trying to take his mind off his useless Pokemon, he wondered briefly what was up with a name like that, anyway. _Seriously_, he thought, _"The Town of Sandgem Town?" That doesn't sound right, but nobody ever just calls it "Sandgem."_ As he continued slogging on, he noticed a building on the side of the route. It was a rundown old shack that looked like it could collapse any second, with half the boards missing and an eerie air about it. "That's weird…" he said. "I don't remember seeing that on the way here."

A rusted metal sign on the shack's front door said "Pokémon for trade! We take all starters, Larvitar, Eevee!" After struggling to read the badly scrawled letters, Dave's mood brightened up a bit. "Maybe I can get a halfway decent Pokémon now," he murmured. He walked up to the front door and slowly edged it open, cautiously saying "Hello?"

Quite unexpectedly, the door slammed open into his face, bowling him down onto the ground. "What the crap, man!" he shouted, holding his nose in pain. Above him loomed a tall man, dressed entirely in black. He even had a cape and a top hat which conveniently shaded his face. "And what's up with the vampy look?! You look like someone out of Twilight!" The man adjusted his hat to make it easier for him to see as Dave picked himself up and brushed the dirt off his clothes.

"Don't be hatin' on my outfit, man," said the tall man in black with a slightly nasal voice. "This hat makes it hard for me to see well. Anyway, what do you want from me?"

Dave leaned over a little in attempt to get a look at the contents of the shack. What he managed to get a glimpse of, quite frankly, scared him. There were slouched-over Pokémon in tubes with wires attached to them, what appeared to be voodoo dolls and some kind of ancient clay figurine on a table, and countless other strange machines and artifacts. Dave raised an eyebrow and faced the man again. "Well, against my better judgment, I've come here to trade with you. I've got a Turtwig, what can you give me for it?"

The man took out a Pokeball from his pants pocket and held it up.  
"This is the last Pokémon I've got. It's a, um, Larvitar. Show me the Turtwig and give me five bucks and it's yours."

Dave pumped his fist in the air. "Yes!" he exclaimed. "A strong Pokémon for a change!" He was actually nervous for a second about how powerful a Larvitar was and what would happen if it turned against him, but he waved the thought away, as he had taught himself to do over the years. After all, what kind of Pokemon trainer feared and distrusted his own Pokemon? He narrowed his eyes suddenly. "Wait…" he said. "It can understand orders, right?"

The man in black laughed. "Of course it can, stupid! What kind of lame Pokémon can't understand orders?"

"Yeah…" Dave replied, looking around shiftily.

He tossed Grassy's Pokeball in the air, releasing him for the last time. The Turtwig looked around excitedly, hoping for a battle. Dave returned him to his Pokeball and fished out five bucks from his wallet. "Excellent!" said the man, clasping his fingers together over the Pokeball. They exchanged the contents of their hands.

"Well, nice doing business with you!" said Dave as he began walking back towards the forest with his new Pokemon. The man laughed evilly. "FOOLISH BOY!" he shouted. "EVERYTHING YOU LOVE WILL SOON BE DESTROYED!"

Dave stared blankly at the man before remarking "What?"

The man cursed briefly and then said "Erm…I mean, uh, thank you for your contribution, please come again!" He then hurriedly closed the door of the shack. "Well, that was rather strange," remarked Dave. "At least I got a good Pokémon out of it. What a sucker!"

* * *

"What a sucker!" snickered the man in black. "I can't believe he didn't even make me release the Pokémon before trading!" He took off his top hat and put it on a table with various instruments of dark magic, revealing ruffled-up black hair, a long, rounded nose, and a pair of rectangular-lens glasses whose glare obscured his eyes. "Kipper!" he yelled. A Mudkip scurried out of one of the many dark corners of the shack. "Kip?" it questioned. The man in black took off his cape and hung it on a bent nail protruding from a wall. "Fire up the teleportation machine!" he commanded. "Let's blow this popsicle stand! Also, can you do me a favor and get my nose spray? All this evil plotting is making me congested."

* * *

Finally, Dave was able to go into the forest without fear of being mauled by some random Ursaring. He was also, to say the least of it, glad that he was able to get a Larvitar, a relatively powerful Pokémon, for a Turtwig that was unable to take orders. "Alrighty then," he said, staring at the Pokeball he held in his hand. "Let's see what you can do! Go, Larvitar!" He threw the ball into the air, clenching his hands tight and barely managing to keep from jumping around like a schoolgirl as a white bolt of energy shot out, revealing the powerful, incredible, awe-inspiring form of a…Diglett?

Dave clenched the Pokeball in his hands so tightly that a crack in it began to form. His face turned red with anger as the Diglett went around in circles on the ground, giddy to be out of its Pokeball for the first time in weeks. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" he screamed, thrusting his face at the sky and scaring the metaphorical pants off of the Diglett. "WHY CAN'T ANYTHING EVER GO RIGHT FOR ME?!"

Running back towards the shack and muttering incoherent curses under his breath, Dave didn't even notice he'd left the Diglett out of its Pokeball. Looking around and unsure of what it should do, it began shuffling through the ground as fast as it could behind him. About three quarters of the way to the shack, both of them saw something that stopped them in their tracks. A wierd, faint humming began to emanate from the shack. Suddenly, the shack and the space around began to warp, shimmering and twisting. Dave stood there, his jaw agape, as the shack vanished.

He promptly became so angry that he couldn't even make a sound. His face went from bright red to something nearing purple, as he clenched his fists and hopped around with an intense fury that made him look absolutely ridiculous. If you hadn't known the events that had just transpired, then you could've sworn that he'd just drunk heavily from a bottle of Tabasco sauce. He attempted to throw his hat onto the ground and stomp on it, but unfortunately, he wasn't wearing one, so he just seethed with anger, trying to calm himself down a little. He breathed in deeply and looked at the Diglett below him. It stared back up at him with puppy dog eyes, practically screaming "BATTLE WITH ME!" Dave sighed. "Well, I guess you're an okay Pokemon. Better than some Turtwig, at least. I mean, I have to at least give you a try, right?" He started back towards the forest when suddenly something occured to him. "Hey, I forgot to name you!" He brightened up at the thought of this. Naming a Pokemon was one of his favorite things to do. It let him make any Pokemon unique, transforming it from a nameless wild creature to something that was uniquely _his_, something that came when he called it, something that followed only his orders.

"Ah!" he said. "I know the perfect name for you. Dave!" He beamed down at the Diglett, which rolled its eyes at Dave's blatant narcissim. "Wait..." he said, "You're a guy, right?" The Diglett stared down at the dirt piled around it that obscured the lower half of its body. "Dig..." it said, as if to remark "Shouldn't you know that?" Dave laughed. "Well, I guess we'll just keep it gender-neutral for now. How about Digger?" It closed its eyes and said "Dig!" in what amounted to a happy expression for a Diglett. "Awesome!" Dave said. "I stocked up on Potions and Pokeballs at the Pokemart, so we should be good to go!" They ran off towards the forest, both excited to have their first adventure together.

* * *

The man in black stood in front of a curtained window. "Well, let's see where we landed this time," he said, breathing in nervously. Kip looked up at him with a bored look and walked away. This was all too normal for him. The man put his hand on a grimy cord and pulled. The curtains drew apart, revealing a beautiful scene. The shack lied upon a bed of rock, large boulders sparsely scattered around it. Green, wavy plants covered the whole place. The view was also, rather strangely, tinted blue and distorted. "Looks like the bottom of Lake Valor again. Good thing I had this place waterproofed after the last time." He sighed. "Well, it'll do for now. Kip! Fire up the energy transferer!" "Kip!" said Kipper in a distant reply. He turned around to face the Turtwig that the boy had so foolishly given him. It sat in a steel cage on a table, looking around scaredly. "...Twig?" it asked, looking up at him. "Oh, don't worry..." the man said, smiling maliciously. "We'll have some fun with you as soon as everything's set up." He began laughing madly, throwing his head back and scaring Grassy even more. However, the laughter soon descended into a coughing fit, droplets of mucus flying from his mouth. This, for some reason, scared Grassy as much as the mad scientist laughter. "DAMMIT-*cough hack*-KIPPER, WHERE'S THAT-*cough*-NOSE-*cough hack cough*-SPRAY?! THE POST-NASAL-*cough*-DRIP IS-*hack*-KILLING ME!" the man in black yelled, doubling over and putting his hand over his mouth. He peered up at the table, where Grassy was shaking and wide-eyed, a yellow puddle forming on the table beneath him. "AND THE TUR-*cough hack*-TWIG ****** ITSELF! BRING A-*cough*-MOP!" "KIP!" came the reply, as Kipper rushed around in another part of the room, trying to get everything done.

* * *

Dave looked around him dissapointedly. "Twenty-five minutes wandering around, and nary a Pokemon to be seen." Diglett looked up at him, eyes half closed. "Diiiig..." it said. "Guess you're getting tired too, huh?" said Dave. Suddenly, he saw a bush rustling. "Yes!" he said, pumping his fist in the air. A Spinarak flew out of the bush, looked around, saw Dave, made a strange little scared noise, and ran up into a tree. All this happened in the space of about two or three seconds. "Alright!" said Dave enthusiastically. "It might be fast, but we can still catch it!" He pointed at the top of the tree, where the Spinarak was scuttling around in circles. "Climb up there and see if you can....oh..." He looked at Digger, who was staring at him, rather miffed at the fact that his own trainer didn't realize that he had a Pokemon with no visible arms or legs.

"Um..." Dave said, scratching his forehead. "I dunno. Maybe we should...uh...throw something at it?" Digger nodded in agreement, or at least as close as it could get to nodding. He took his backpack off and unzipped it, beginning to rummage through the seemingly endless mounds of junk. "Ah!" he said, holding up a shiny metallic rock. "The rock Mel gave me! This should do it!" He aimed the rock at the Spinarak and threw it as hard as he could. Luckily, it landed a square hit on the Spinarak's side, knocking it out of the tree.

It landed on its back and started wiggling around in a futile attempt to right itself. "Alright!" Dave said. "There's some progress! Now, go and use Dig on it!" Digger shook its head back and forth. "Whaddaya mean, you can't use Dig?! It's the whole way you move around, for God's sake!" Dave walked over to where the rock had fallen and put it back into his backpack for safekeeping. Digger raised its eyebrow and decided eventually to see if it could perform Dig. Popping under the ground, it moved in an awkward squiggle towards the Spinarak, giving it a good try but coming up about a foot off target. The Spinarak was still wiggling around frantically on the ground, almost squealing with pure terror.

"Good effort!" said Dave enthusiastically. "Just use Scratch on it until it faints, then!" Digger circled around it menacingly, a claw popping out of the ground at blinding speed to scratch the terrified bug at regular intervals. Finally, the Spinarak gave one last trembling sigh as its eyes rolled back in its head, fainting partly from the damage and partly from sheer terror. Digger shuffled back to Dave, breathing heavily but proud of itself. "Good job, Digger," Dave said, taking out a Pokeball from the appropriate pocket of his backpack. "Go, Pokeball!" he shouted, throwing the red and white orb at the Spinarak. It metamorphosed into a cloud of red energy which was immediately sucked into the ball, the Pokeball barely beeping once before letting out the saisfying bing which signified that the Pokemon was captured.

"Sweet!" said Dave as he bent over to pick up the Pokeball. He put it on his PokeHolderPro (registered trademark) belt, which so far had only held Digger's Pokeball. "Let's call the little guy...Twitch. Well, onward through the forest, then. We should be heading towards Jubilife City, there'll be a Pokemon Center there." "Dig!" said Digger in an unpecific gesture of consent. "You know," Dave said, looking down sentimentally at Digger, "I realize now that you really aren't too bad for a starter Pokemon. Maybe you really are better than some stupid Larvitar."

* * *

The man in black laughed, holding the black and red jumper cables in his hand. "Ha! Nothing can stop the evil power of Jerome von Mackintosh the Third! NOTHING!" Clicking the clips on the cables together, he said "Now then, down to business." He paused for a second and turned around. "You powered up the siphoners, right?" "Kip," said Kipper, who was sitting watchfully beside him. "Excellent!" Grassy looked up at him nervously from the straps which were currently binding it to a cold operating table. "Oh,don't worry," he said. "This is going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you. Oh, wait; NO, IT'S NOT!" He laughed madly, attaching the clips to Grassy's head leaves with evil glee. Grassy let out a piercing shriek as everything went black.


End file.
